Fairphone 2: 10 out of 10 rating for repairability

February 15, 2016 | 15:55

Fairphone 2 disassembled (with 1 tool). Image : iFixit

The Dutch are thrifty people and hate to throw things away things when there’s a 1e-6 chance of repairability. Sending a Dutch-designed Fairphone 2 smartphone over to teardown specialists iFixit resulted in cries of enthusiasm and an “awesome” 10/10 rating from the Californians.

The Dutch are thrifty people and hate to throw things away things when there’s a 1e-6 chance of repairability. Sending a Dutch-designed Fairphone 2 smartphone over to teardown specialists iFixit resulted in cries of enthusiasm and an “awesome” 10/10 rating from the Californians.

With a boring design, a slow2 processor and nothing to excite a 14-year old kid the Fairphone 2 is the electronics engineer’s delight because it can be repaired down to the module level, including the screen so dreaded on ‘real’ Android smartphones. iFixit reported a grand total of 1 (one) tool required to open the phone, and what’s inside is so accessible you’d want to start soldering.

The phone is an open platform and the Jolla community is currently working on Sailfish OS for the Fairphone 2, exploiting the advanced mode that allows users to install any other operating system of their choosing.